Former MTB world champ aims to make sport all-inclusive

A former world mountain-biking champion is restoring Illawarra’s discarded bikes in an effort to bring mountain-biking to the masses.

Nathan Rennie and his wife, Sarah, run The Victory Lab, which offers specialised kids MTB programs and expert MTB coaching, and the couple have recognised the need for mountain-bike coaching for all skill levels as well as the importance of safety, basic bike etiquette and skill sessions for school-aged children.

And they know all about bike safety and skills. 

Nathan is a former professional MTBer with decades of competition experience around the world, and he is a qualified mountain bike instructor and an accomplished trail builder. He’s also a coach for the AusCycling Junior Development Academy.

Sarah is a qualified MTB assistant coach and Ausbike instructor and she is on the board of the Wollongong Mountain Bike Club. 

The couple’s passion for the sport runs deep, but they also know that MTB can be expensive – with protective gear required – so they’ve taken it upon themselves to reduce the cost to enthusiasts by offering restored bikes to eligible course participants and accepting Active Kids vouchers.

“When Nathan sees bikes to be salvaged around the community, he picks them up, and he's currently restoring a fleet of kids' bikes that we are going to offer,” Sarah says.

“These bikes have been just thrown away – nothing wrong with them – they just need a little love.

“And we're going to offer them for kids that are less fortunate and cannot afford bikes … because we're looking at making mountain-biking accessible to all.

"We've done a lot of training recently on diversity and inclusion. And also a big one is adaptive riding for people with disabilities, but we also want to offer coaching sessions for kids with neurodivergent needs.

"We know firsthand that they don't learn the same way. They need a special environment sometimes, and we want to be able to cater to the needs of kids so that they're not excluded."

Nathan's bike-restoration efforts form part of The Victory Lab’s much larger mission to bring MTB to the public, which includes:

• September 28-29: a two-day MTB camp for beginner/intermediate (8-17yrs) at Cringila Hills MTB Park, 9am to 12pm (morning tea included);
• September 30: a one-day advanced lab rats racing clinic (8-17yrs) at Cringila Hills MTB Park, 9am to 1.30pm (morning tea included as well as parent info session and bonus race-prep seminar)
• October 8-9: a two-day MTB camp for beginner/intermediate and non-racing advanced (8-17yrs) at Helensburgh MTB Park, 9am to 12pm (morning tea included).

The Victory Lab has also launched its Lab Rats junior development program and Lab Rats racing team for under 19s who are racing or want to get into it. 

“This will be a monthly subscription and will include a combination of group webinars, one-on-one virtual race prep training, on the bike coaching, race support, a team jersey,'' Nathan said. 

“We even have a Lab Rats rider who is part of our program and is in Brazil.”

Nathan says that, as well as crucial racing knowledge, he can share valuable off-the-bike lessons with those who are keen to race internationally.

“When you're travelling and driving for 10 hours at a time, every single week, you race all over Europe, you can't even speak a language, you really feel out of place, so helping them settle into that is important.”

Nathan was 17 when he went overseas to start racing professionally. 

“So there was a lot of life skills he didn't have yet,” Sarah says. "So we're trying to cut that out for the kids who really want to make try to make it as far as they can [in competition] and support them with that and the transition into it.”

Sarah says The Victory Lab will launch a weekly after-school kids MTB program, which will be staged at Cringila MTB park in school term four with trail-riding as well, and Active Kids vouchers will be accepted.

“We cap it at eight to 10 people in a class, so they get plenty of quality one-on-one time – the smaller the class, the more quality the instruction,'' she said.

“It's more cost-effective, too – it’s cheaper for families. It's shorter – one hour a week is all they need – and yet they can really build on their confidence and their skills.”

They are planning to extend their bike safety workshops into schools “so we've already started initial chats with a few of them”, Sarah says.

For more details on upcoming MTB clinics and courses, visit www.thevictorylab.com.au

For more information on the Wollongong Mountain Bike Club and its events, visit https://wollongongmtbclub.com.au/ or the club's Facebook page.

A club race is planned for October, the first one at the new Mount Kembla trails.

"This is one of the events that took a lot of volunteer time and energy to get permission from NPWS to be able to host it at Mount Kembla. A huge achievement," Sarah says.